DE. HILL, FROM REFLEX ACTION TO VOLITION. 49 



sympathise with him in his treatment of the subject, and con- 

 gratulate him on having done it in an admirable manner. I have 

 great pleasure in endorsing the vote of thanks offered to Dr. Hill 

 for his very interesting paper. 



Mr. D. Howard, F.C.S. — I have pleasure in offering my thanks 

 to Dr. Hill for his paper, and I hope it will be studied by those 

 who do not know much of the subject, as well as by those who do, 

 because it gives a clear idea of a very interesting and difficult 

 subject, and I hope Dr. Hill will follow it up further with a paper 

 such as Sir Joseph Fayrer has suggested. It is a great advantage 

 to have some knowledge of anatomy, and it is the anatomy of the 

 brain alone that can throw any light on the problems treated of 

 in this paper. 



I cannot imagine anything more unwise than to blame such in- 

 vestigations as tending to materialism : we might as well object 

 that the study of the vibrations of a fiddle detracted from the 

 skill of Joachim. 



As to the knee-jerk that has been referred to, I can only say it 

 is best tried by somebody who does not know the meaning of it. 

 I have a vivid recollection of it in my boyish days, and it was 

 irresistibly ludicrous, but the other reflex action of the toe is 

 also likely to follow where it is practised on an unconscious 

 school-boy. 



Lt.-Colonel T. A. Freeman, M.A., Oxon. — " This doctrine does not 

 carry my judgment with it ; it throws back the variations to chance, 

 as an ultimate cause. Chance ! an expression which in science can 

 only stand for a cause not yet discovered." When I read this in 

 the paper I was reminded of an exceedingly fine expression in 

 Napier's " Peninsular War." Any who have read that work know 

 how he constantly refers to fortune, and I have heard this objected 

 to on religious grounds ; but he ends by describing fortune as 

 being " the unknown combinations of infinite power," and he 

 points out that fortune was against Napoleon ; and because fortune 

 was against him his immense power in the Peninsula was shattered. 

 If you take that definition I think you will see at once what a 

 magnificent idea it is. Now to pass to one other thing in the 

 paper, as to reflex action, which was spoken cf as the " knee-jerk." 

 It brought to my mind something that happened in India some 

 years ago, when an officer was severely injured by a wild boar. 

 He would certainly have died if he had not had a strong consti- 



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